The Rise of the Third Reich

"Lieutenant Admiral, there are 15 enemy ships, and they seem to be forming a double column."

On June 11, at 0:48 in the morning, the radar of the battlecruiser "Hood" traveling southward discovered that the oncoming German ship formation suddenly changed from a single column to a double column.

"Lieutenant General, one of the columns is speeding towards us!"

Two minutes later, the radar officer loudly reported again.

"That's a destroyer detachment," Vice Admiral Holland said calmly. "The Germans' radar may not be as good as ours, so the destroyers need to launch flares."

The UK now has a fire control radar code-named "Type 284", which was installed on the "Hood" and "Prince of Wales" in March 1941. Therefore, these two warships can fire at night without the use of flares.

However, Germany's radar is slightly worse and cannot function as a fire control radar. However, using the FuMo22-H radar to search, it is still possible to determine the approximate location of enemy ships, and then light cruisers and destroyers can launch flares.

"Let the Edinburgh, Electra, Echo, Adventure and Cossack form a formation to engage the enemy destroyers."

Vice Admiral Holland immediately adjusted his arrangement and sent a light cruiser and three destroyers to prevent the German patrol formation from launching flares.

Four British warships quickly came out of the queue, formed a formation, and then rushed towards the formation of six German ships at a high speed of 32 knots - the six German ships were the "Berlin" and "Vienna" , T13, T14, T15 and T16.

The first exchange of fire started between these four British ships and six German ships.

The first to fire was the SP-class "Vienna", which hit the flares over the British light cruiser "Edinburgh" that was rushing ahead. Then the "Edinburgh" also fired flares, illuminating the "Vienna" (at this time, there were no fire control radars on British light cruisers and destroyers).

Immediately afterwards, the "Edinburgh" and "Vienna" became living targets for attracting artillery shells. What was more unfortunate was that the German "Vienna" was hit by four 6-inch shells and three 4-inch shells in less than 5 minutes. Many places on the hull were on fire, and she had to withdraw from the battle under the cover of smoke released by the destroyer. The situation of the British "Edinburgh" is much better. This is a "10,000-ton light cruiser". Although the main gun caliber is only 6 inches, it has as many as 12 guns and the armor is relatively strong. Therefore, it was not a big deal after receiving a few German 150mm shells. After repelling the "Vienna", the gun was pointed at the 7,800-ton "Berlin".

At the same time, the battle between battleships and heavy cruisers also began! The first one to open fire was the "Hood". When the "Hood" approached the main German ship formation at 23,000 meters, Lieutenant General Holland ordered to open fire. The target was the first battleship of the German fleet - Vice Admiral Holland thought it was a battleship, but in fact it was the heavy cruiser "Prinz Eugen". After the "Hood" opened fire, the "Prince of Wales" also opened fire. Its shooting target was the second battleship in the German fleet. The British also thought it was a battleship, but it was actually the "Luzow" Heavy cruiser.

Rear Admiral Erich Bay formed an unexpected and strange formation, with two heavy cruisers in front and the battleship "Gneisenno" ranked third in the column. As a result, both the "Hood" and the "Prince of Wales" were fooled and regarded the two heavy cruisers as opponents.

While the British fleet was firing, Rear Admiral Erich Bay ordered the fleet to turn 200 degrees to the left in order to seize the T-head position. His formation now ran a top speed of 32.5 knots, while the British fleet could only maintain a speed of 28 knots - although the "Hood" ran 29 knots in the sea trial after the last overhaul, considering At the age of the "Hood", no one dared to let it use its full strength.

Long before this naval battle began, the generals and elite staff of the British Royal Navy had been studying ways to deal with these fast German warships. According to Royal Navy gunnery experts, Lieutenant General Hotworth, who once served as the captain of the Hood, and Lieutenant General Holland, the current captain of the Hood, have the same opinion. When the Hood engages in a confrontation with a German fast battleship, it should face the enemy with its bow, so as to reduce the area affected by bombs as much as possible. After the distance between the two sides is close, the Hood should turn to use the full power of the main gun. At the same time, it can fight the enemy with the thickest side armor to prevent the weak deck from being vertically hit by the enemy's 380mm shells.

To be fair, this tactic is very suitable for the British fleet battleships that are slower but have relatively strong firepower and thick enough armor. However, the Hood is a thin-skinned battlecruiser. But Holland still adopted this tactic today. Faced with the turn of the main fleet of the German fleet, the "Hood" and the "Prince of Wales" chose to attack at full speed. Therefore, the German fleet successfully seized the T-head position.

When the two sides were about 18,000 meters apart, the fast cruiser "Prague" in the German fleet fired a flare. The flare accurately landed around the "Hood", shrouding the battlecruiser as huge as a mountain. In the dazzling white light.

Then the main guns of "Gneisenno" and the main guns of "Prinz Eugen" and "Lützow" opened fire at the same time. All 22 cannons were aimed at the "Hood" at the forefront, while the "Hood" and the "Prince of Wales" could only use the 4 15-inch cannons and 6 14-inch cannons on the bow. fight back.

When the German battleships and heavy cruisers opened fire, Lieutenant General Holland realized that he had just hit the wrong target. He quickly ordered the "Hood" and the "Prince of Wales" to re-aiming at the "Gneisenau" and fire. At this moment, a 203mm shell from the "Prinz Eugen" actually hit the "Hood".

The point of impact was an anti-aircraft artillery shell storage box on the starboard amidships deck - these ammunition storage boxes installed outside the armored deck had been hit during the battle of the "Scharnhorst" in the 39th year. During the overhaul of the "Germany", some ammunition boxes were moved below the deck, but then due to the increasing threat of German air power, many anti-aircraft guns had to be temporarily installed, and the ammunition boxes of these anti-aircraft guns were installed on On the deck. As a result, he was hit again this time, which also caused the ammunition to explode and a fire.

Vice Admiral Holland secretly yelled "Oops". It was a night battle. If someone was caught on fire, wouldn't he become a living target for absorbing shells? In this case, it would be inconvenient to even escape!

"Order damage control to rescue and extinguish the fire immediately." Lieutenant General Holland paused, and then issued another order: "The entire team turns left and heading 280 degrees!"

He felt that he could no longer get closer to the opponent, and was preparing to keep his formation parallel to the German ship formation. But at this moment, a shell from the "Prince Eugen" hit the "Hood" again. The huge vibration caused by the explosion of the shell caused the "Hood"'s 284 fire control radar to malfunction. Without the fire control radar, Holland could only order the Hood's secondary battery to fire flares. But before the flares were fired, the "Gneisenno" fired a "cross-fire" at the "Hood".

"What the hell!" Lieutenant General Holland took a breath. The "burst shot" means that the impact point of the cannonball is scattered in the front, rear, left and right of the ship. This shows that the enemy ship's firepower has "caught" the "Hood", and when it will hit is a matter of probability.

Moreover, the "Gneisenno" has now been equipped with a 380mm main gun. If it fires one for the "Hood", it will be a big trouble.

Lieutenant General Holland had already begun to intend to retreat at this time. His mission was to lure the enemy. Now that the "Bismarck" has not been lured, only the "Gneisenno" has been lured, which can be regarded as the completion of the mission.

So he ordered the fleet to turn 200 degrees to the left, preparing to turn around and escape. However, not even a minute after the order was issued, the 10,000-ton light cruiser "Edinburgh", which ran to the north of the "Hood" due to entanglement with the German patrol detachment, suddenly sent him a message that horrified him: due north. An unidentified fleet appeared 25 nautical miles away, with more than 20 ships, and was heading south rapidly!

There are actually 20 German ships in the north! Holland suddenly had a premonition that he was doomed. He now knew that there was a German battleship to the south of him, the "Gneisenau" with only 6 cannons, so the remaining two "Bismarcks" would probably go around to the north. Now we are attacking the "Gneisenau" from the north and south!

"Turn right 250 degrees!" Lieutenant General Holland, who was a little desperate, ordered to turn again. This time he would not go back to the north, but break out to the southwest.

"Send power to the Nelson and inform me that the fleet is in a difficult battle. Please go south immediately for reinforcements!"

Then Lieutenant General Holland ordered the radio to send a distress telegram to the "Nelson" - Fleet A, now with the "Nelson" as its flagship, is less than 60 nautical miles away from the Shetland Islands. Three hours after driving faster We'll be there soon...

It's a pity that the "Hood" does not have 3 hours to wait.

Due to the back and forth steering, the firepower of the "Hood" and the "Prince of Wales" was not fully utilized. The German ship formation on the opposite side was still intact, but the distance between the two ships quickly approached the German ship formation to about 13,000 meters. . At this time, the fire on the "Hood" was still not extinguished, making it a good target in the darkness.

At 1:15 a.m. on June 11, the "Gneisenno" fired its 10th salvo, and the "Prinz Eugen" and "Lützow" fired their 18th and 16th salvos. One shell from each of the three ships hit the "Hood" almost simultaneously, and all of them hit the deck. Among them, a 380mm main gun shell fired by the "Gneisenno" hit the lifeboat deck behind the main mast of the "Hood".

I don’t know what was ignited, but suddenly a large amount of smoke came out of the lifeboat deck and a very dull explosion sounded. Although the sound was not very loud, it was very violent, and the rear half of the "Hood" was immediately enveloped in black smoke. Then a violent explosion occurred on the "Hood". The explosion occurred in the middle and rear of the hull. Almost instantly, the entire warship was engulfed in smoke and fire...